eating healthy - good for what ails ya!

[amor fati]

i've been wanting to post about this for a while, and i don't really know how but just to share some of my experiences and thoughts: it's first of all amazing to me how little thought a lot of people give to food. i've lived off of dumpsters and food not bombs off and on for years at a time; we've all met ramen vegans. diet is so fundamental to our health and we find so many reasons to put cost, convenience, ethics or whatever else ahead of nutrition. staying active is great and is often a big part of the hobo life, but i think people often have the mistaken idea that this should be adequate in itself.

now i know people have different needs. i basically stopped eating carbs abotu a year ago, which has had a radically positive effect on my health including with some issues that doctors couldnt' even identify let alone help with (although they were happy to give me ABs for a year - one of the reasons i decided to write is seeing how many people post about antibiotics here). antibiotics are not just problematic in the possible sensational growth of 'super-bugs' but more prosaically in the fact that they devastate your digestive tract's internal ecosystem which allows things like candida to take over.

carbs are cheap to live on, but they're essentially empty calories that are biologically unnecessary and cause all sorts of corollary issues. part of my issue was that i drank beer every day for years. this wasn't good for my immune system and i also gained a lot of weight, which melted off (about 50 lbs in 3 months) when i changed my diet.

related: even those of us with healthy metabolisms may find them altering / slowing down quite a bit in our mid 20s.

i am raw-ish vegan now as well as super low carb. yes, i do have to pay a lot more attention to how i eat. to me, the benefits are more than worth it. it's super weird to think of all the time i spent damaging myself living off of substances that both the mainstream culture and its underground find acceptable. i always kind of understood that something like vegan-ish paleo was probably healthiest but i made so many excuses, even when i had a roof over my head and a job and it should have been easier to take care of myself. im happy to say that at 32 i'm 'home-free', somewhat of a health food nut but generally in the best physical and mental shape i've possibly ever been in. i used to have all sorts of issues with skin, breathing, mood, energy level... now im much happier, im basically never sick or even congested, even injuries heal pretty quickly.

the more i think about the time i spent in the grip of a western capitalist medical apparatus that wants to ransom my health back to me, without even caring enough to understand it; but the answer is not to just ignore it all and fall into the grip of apathy. i have a friend who helped sell me on this whole idea who likes to posit diet as a major form of social control. it does make a certain kind of sense, i mean without trying to be too much of a dick about it, look at all these obese white people in america who live off of like corn and pork? no wonder they all love donald trump, it would be a wonder if they could string two coherent thoughts together. or notice how indigenous peoples forced onto a starch-based diet from a gathering-hunting based one become afflicted with severe issues around diabetes and alcoholism (like how people of east asian ancestry often can't digest dairy). stay healthy, stay free!! no more ramen punx...

 

[Raging Bird]

Totally agree with you about all this shit. On top of all that, when you say, "we find so many reasons to put cost, convenience, ethics" ahead of nutrition, I don't even buy that shit! I think most of those things are people putting convenience first and finding excuses to justify it! When you realize that making your own food is not only healthier but *consistently* cheaper, you realize that the biggest scam in this society is getting people to pay more money for shittier things out of sheer laziness.

I traveled with this dude Caleb a few years ago and he completely revolutionized the way I did shit. He cared about food and nutrition and would actually cook with a little stove every time we were in a jungle or a hop out. Convenience makes sense when you're on the road, but he'd always say, no, we've got to stop here and make food, we have to make time to eat because it's important. This dude would have one water bottle for water and another soaking dried beans, then he'd set up shop and cook quinoa, lentils, and salmon in a damn train yard. I said something like "We're living a life of luxury here" and he told me, "Dude, all of this cost less than $10, which is what anyone would spend eating out at any restaurant." Kind of blew me away and changed the way I thought about shit.

Anyway, you got any recipes or food ideas for eating cheap on the road? I think it's good that people are talking about this stuff.

 

[Matt Derrick]

yeah it's nice to see folks talking about this stuff, i agree, it's not often brought up in our circles and too many of us eat way too much crap, myself included.

for me the hardest part was not having enough money for food, but when i started eating paleo it was kinda shocked how little money i was spending on an assload of food. i'm also starting to feel like i'm actually learning how to cook for the first time in my life, which is strange but definitely satisfying.

i've gotten super overweight since i started eating meat about 3 years ago (was veggie for like 12 years) so i'm trying to move back over to a veggie/fish/no carbs thing, and change my lifestyle so i'm not sitting on my ass all the time (i've resigned to not take another tech job ever again).

i'm still trying to figure all this out so i'm open to any food/recipe ideas anyone has or just suggestions for being healthier in general.

 

[Raging Bird]

yeah it's nice to see folks talking about this stuff, i agree, it's not often brought up in our circles and too many of us eat way too much crap, myself included.

for me the hardest part was not having enough money for food, but when i started eating paleo it was kinda shocked how little money i was spending on an assload of food. i'm also starting to feel like i'm actually learning how to cook for the first time in my life, which is strange but definitely satisfying.

i've gotten super overweight since i started eating meat about 3 years ago (was veggie for like 12 years) so i'm trying to move back over to a veggie/fish/no carbs thing, and change my lifestyle so i'm not sitting on my ass all the time (i've resigned to not take another tech job ever again).

i'm still trying to figure all this out so i'm open to any food/recipe ideas anyone has or just suggestions for being healthier in general.

How'd you like being paleo, Matt? I've always heard about it but never pursued it. I've done a bunch of other weird stuff like intermittent fasting and gluten free.

A lot of people hate on fad diets but I just like trying different stuff out to see how my body and mind respond. IF in particular gave me a lot more energy and I think I got a bit leaner as well. I had been sluggish for a little while and realized it was because I was constantly weighed down digesting a bunch of food I would eat at all hours of the day.

 

[Toasty Tramp]

I found out about my love for dank meals while traveling, too. There's lots of ways to eat good food for free, if you don't mind a little work.

Arrive before the vendors at a farmers market, offer to help set up in exchange for whatever they're selling. If you're smart, you'll make arrangements to swing by later in the day to pick up the goods when everything is in motion.

Super small town restaurants, gas stations, bakeries, and coffee shops are awesome for work trading food. When I traveled down the coast, I always stayed in the tiny tourist cities, populations of like 250-500. There was only ONE occasion that I was denied a dank ass meal for dank ass help, and fuck those guys anyways. But more often than not, I left with nutritious, delicious, stupendously dank meals and a beer or three. Note - the work can get dirty

In big cities, you can find fresh produce at most places that offer emergency food services. Same goes for REAL bread, God I love real bread don't get me started. Learning how to make a decent stir fry can go a long way in the road. If I didn't score a dank meal in exchange for work...I basically ate stir fry.

Learning to cook is...kind of essential. You gotta know how to cook. Microwave magicians and can opener technicians need to step up the game, cause you get out of your body (and mind) exactly what ya put into it. Eating good food is just as easy and difficult as everything else on the road...but maaaan. Talk about one of those things you don't wanna fuck up long term. It's well worth the effort to learn how to properly fuel your body, and honestly, with practice, it becomes like second nature and doesn't even require thought.

I'm on my phone right now, but I'll put together some general "recipes" for easy meals on the road that doesn't taste like 8 cans of expired shark shit when I get back.

 

[Matt Derrick]

How'd you like being paleo, Matt? I've always heard about it but never pursued it. I've done a bunch of other weird stuff like intermittent fasting and gluten free.

i like what it taught me about cooking and shopping at the grocery store more than the (limited) amount of weight i lost. in the first week i immediately dropped about 10 lbs, but i'm pretty sure that was all water weight and crap from the preservative-laden food i was eating previously.

after that i lost about another 8 lbs or so (over the next month) before i got super sick. i think it's unlikely that this sickness was related to my diet, but long story short i was caught in some awful cold weather without a jacket or jeans (shorts) and i came down with a fever and bad cough that lasted for weeks afterwards.

that's when it kinda all went to shit. one of the 'perks' of eating paleo is that you don't have to count calories, but i'm a fucking glutton so i just ended up eating massive quantities of meat (mostly red meat, but some fish too). granted, i was cooking it all myself and not eating processed food, so i was definitely eating better, so i felt better, but wasn't losing any weight.

i'm really bad about portion control and i get tempted by sugar and other crap really easily (i know this is largely related to the 'finish your plate' philosophy a lot of us grew up with), so if i'm not constantly tracking my calories, it becomes way too easy to make excuses and just eat whatever. long story short, i gained back all the weight i lost

while i feel that eating paleo didn't really work for me, i did appreciate how much it forced me to set aside time to cook real food (i.e. not processed, very little carbs), and it taught me how to shop for food by not going into the middle of a grocery store. if you just stick to the outside isles (meat, dairy, produce, etc) and not go in the middle (grains, processed food, sugars) then you'll not only eat a lot healthier, but god damn, it is cheap!

once you learn to cook real food and how to shop for it, holy shit i was spending like 40 bucks for fucking shopping cart full of vegetables and meat; so that part was awesome!

so anyways, it would be nice if there was a one-diet-fits-all that just worked, but we're all different so i'm still trying different things to see what works for me. to be honest, the happiest and fittest i've been in my life is when i lived in nola, had just started eating fish (after being a terrible carb vegetarian for like 10 years) and was biking 8 hours a day (doing food delivery in the french quarter). that really seemed to work the best for me, and it was only when i started eating red meat that i became a total fat ass

so i'm trying to transition back to that lifestyle or something similar to it. no more computer jobs (i.e. sitting on my ass all the time) pescetarian diet, and just trying to stay active (both at work and at home).

anyways, sorry kinda ranty, but that was my experience and what i'm trying to go for now.

 

[autumn]

yeah it's nice to see folks talking about this stuff, i agree, it's not often brought up in our circles and too many of us eat way too much crap, myself included.

for me the hardest part was not having enough money for food, but when i started eating paleo it was kinda shocked how little money i was spending on an assload of food. i'm also starting to feel like i'm actually learning how to cook for the first time in my life, which is strange but definitely satisfying.

i've gotten super overweight since i started eating meat about 3 years ago (was veggie for like 12 years) so i'm trying to move back over to a veggie/fish/no carbs thing, and change my lifestyle so i'm not sitting on my ass all the time (i've resigned to not take another tech job ever again).

i'm still trying to figure all this out so i'm open to any food/recipe ideas anyone has or just suggestions for being healthier in general.

I'm a wingnut when it comes to cooking.

For good recipes, the only resource I trust is http://seriouseats.com

All of their recipes are good. I've probably made close to fifty of those recipes and not a single one turns out bad. They've also got a ton of info on techniques and culinary science, which is super helpful, especially if you're still learning the foundations of cooking.

i like what it taught me about cooking and shopping at the grocery store more than the (limited) amount of weight i lost. in the first week i immediately dropped about 10 lbs, but i'm pretty sure that was all water weight and crap from the preservative-laden food i was eating previously.

after that i lost about another 8 lbs or so (over the next month) before i got super sick. i think it's unlikely that this sickness was related to my diet, but long story short i was caught in some awful cold weather without a jacket or jeans (shorts) and i came down with a fever and bad cough that lasted for weeks afterwards.

that's when it kinda all went to shit. one of the 'perks' of eating paleo is that you don't have to count calories, but i'm a fucking glutton so i just ended up eating massive quantities of meat (mostly red meat, but some fish too). granted, i was cooking it all myself and not eating processed food, so i was definitely eating better, so i felt better, but wasn't losing any weight.

i'm really bad about portion control and i get tempted by sugar and other crap really easily (i know this is largely related to the 'finish your plate' philosophy a lot of us grew up with), so if i'm not constantly tracking my calories, it becomes way too easy to make excuses and just eat whatever. long story short, i gained back all the weight i lost

while i feel that eating paleo didn't really work for me, i did appreciate how much it forced me to set aside time to cook real food (i.e. not processed, very little carbs), and it taught me how to shop for food by not going into the middle of a grocery store. if you just stick to the outside isles (meat, dairy, produce, etc) and not go in the middle (grains, processed food, sugars) then you'll not only eat a lot healthier, but god damn, it is cheap!

once you learn to cook real food and how to shop for it, holy shit i was spending like 40 bucks for fucking shopping cart full of vegetables and meat; so that part was awesome!

so anyways, it would be nice if there was a one-diet-fits-all that just worked, but we're all different so i'm still trying different things to see what works for me. to be honest, the happiest and fittest i've been in my life is when i lived in nola, had just started eating fish (after being a terrible carb vegetarian for like 10 years) and was biking 8 hours a day (doing food delivery in the french quarter). that really seemed to work the best for me, and it was only when i started eating red meat that i became a total fat ass

so i'm trying to transition back to that lifestyle or something similar to it. no more computer jobs (i.e. sitting on my ass all the time) pescetarian diet, and just trying to stay active (both at work and at home).

anyways, sorry kinda ranty, but that was my experience and what i'm trying to go for now.

I bet if you ate a leaner meat instead of red meat you could be as much of a glutton as you want I actually don't really know anything about nutrition and don't care too much, I love cooking and I love cooking good food, as long as it's something nutrient dense and not super heavy on sugar/fat/salt, I figure it's good enough. I've been trying to completely eliminate sugar from my diet for years with no success.

And hell yeah cooking good food is cheap! Though, when I get really crazy with some of the stuff I make, it ends up costing $30+ (a fuckload of ingredients) for one meal/3 people. The quality and taste of that food can't be beaten though. Plus cooking has the added benefit of landing you sweet crash spots. I'm the only person who cooks where I am now and they joke that my cooking is the only reason they keep me around.

What are you trying to do now in terms of diet?

 

[Deleted member 16034]

How'd you like being paleo, Matt? I've always heard about it but never pursued it. I've done a bunch of other weird stuff like intermittent fasting and gluten free.

A lot of people hate on fad diets but I just like trying different stuff out to see how my body and mind respond. IF in particular gave me a lot more energy and I think I got a bit leaner as well. I had been sluggish for a little while and realized it was because I was constantly weighed down digesting a bunch of food I would eat at all hours of the day.

How did the gluten free diet treat ya?
I have the actual, honest to God Celiac disease so I get every human being coming to me telling me what I can and can't eat ("How are you eating that potato?!" Comes to mind). But every person who I've talked to that has gone gluten free felt a shit ton more energy. It's mostly because the American diet is so overly saturated in complex carbs and not focused on complete nutrition and blah blah

 

[krustystargazer]

As someone who is crazy about good food, it really fucked me up when first travelling to suddenly having a diet of canned beans and spaghetti, or bloody instant soup or whatever. As I travelled more, learning from my partner who's done some bicycle touring, I actually realised it is not as hard or expensive as you'd think to eat really well on the road, and how important it is. Especially wanting to maintain our strong ethics about food, and not support supermarket giants like Coles, Safeway... and the ever seductively cheap Aldi (unless your going through their bins). We had a collection of tough zip lock bags with beans rice, dry goods, chick peas, lots of staples... re-filled at small organic co-ops when we found them. Not only does that mean your not supporting huge supermarkets that sell shit food and waste so much of it, but your not buying food in packaging, so you reduce your waste.

Our travel pantry;

1. dry goods in ziplocked bags... lentils, chickpeas, beans, rice, pasta, and little zip lock bags for herbs and spices salt and pepper... oats are good too, and chia (tiny little seeds that are stupidly cheap to buy, which when soaked turn into this gelatenous delicious breakfast, super healthy, fill you up, lots of energy). Nuts, seeds all that good stuff... more expensive to but worth having. flour if you want to make your own bread (which you do not need an oven for... literally water, bread, yeast and you can make an oven from a fire pit and make your own bread... or making your own flat bread is even easier). Dried fruit ( which can be done yourself !! ), dried herbs (including medicinal herbs)
   
2. small amounts of liquid foodstuffs; oil (which can you buy in bulk, saving containers... just fill up a plastic water bottle at a food co-op, soy sauce or tamari (which can also be found in bulk)
3. fresh stuff! Dumpster dived fruit and veg, fruit and veg from a farmers market, foraged wild foods (mushrooms, weeds, fruit), obviously know what your picking and make sure its in a good spot. Don't eat food that is growing in a suspect spot... like weeds near a storm drain or mushrooms from a nearby waste site (tip, factory whatever), as mushrooms accumulate harmful toxins like LEAD and mercury!
   
4. EGGGGGGGS. mother fucking eggs. you can these nifty egg holders from a camping store really cheap that make sure your eggs dont break. best invention.
5. HONEY. and lots of it if you got the space.

and to cook... little stove and thats it. Matches, lighters, a small axe or saw. All you need is a little pot and a fry pan and your good. We don't really have dairy, in Australia it all turns to shit pretty quick but if your in a colder region you might just want to carry some butter and cheese. Milks harder to carry and doesn't keep as long so I never bother.

Preserve food whenever you can... if its a sunny day and you have all this fruit or mushies or veg, dry that shit! it will last so much longer. You dont have any way to keep shit cool, so make hay while the sun shines.

As someone who used to eat pretty averagely, being a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and had stints of being vegan, sugar free, low fat [load of shit] whatever diets... but I've found over the years what keeps me healthy and energised is eating SEASONALLY (we should not be able to buy pineapples in fucking winter), from HOME GROWN, ORGANIC food, and by avoiding processed, packaged, sprayed, shit stuffs which barely passes as real food. I find if you listen to your body, you'll know what you need. There are so many goddamn diets out there that work for so many different people... find out what works for you.

It is fucking time consuming and requires effort to eat well while travelling, but cut your day a little bit shorter, so you can sit down and cook a damn good meal, it is bloody worth it. Food is not meant to be convenient.